A Changing Marriage by Susan Kietzman and Interview with the Author

For college kids like us, caught up in hook ups and one-night stands, marriage probably isn’t something at the forefront of our minds.  This predictable though true to life book may either bore you to tears or open your eyes to how your choices now have the power to affect your future happiness.  A Changing Marriage by Susan Kietzman is a love story between two people who met in college, and married quickly thereafter.  After having children, their marriage quickly spirals into sarcastic bickering and resentment.  The opening of the novel accurately captures college life and later deals with the hardships of choosing between two men and the constant consideration whether life would have been better had she chosen differently.  The mid section of the book describes main character Karen’s daily life in intimate diary-like detail.  It is quickly obvious to the reader that Karen and her husband Bob’s marriage is not a happy one and their equally selfish demeanors begin to overshadow their love for each other.  Once Bob’s life becomes consumed with work and the next promotion and the children are old enough to attend school, Karen uses her newfound freedom to join a ladies tennis group and to lunch and shop with her wealthy girlfriends.  She becomes enveloped in her new life in which she flaunts her ability to do what she wants.  While motherhood is undoubtedly strenuous and Bob’s continual absence on business trips frustrating, Karen becomes enveloped in the rich socialite scene and begins to lose her pride and motivation.  Her good friend Sarah, whom she met at the playground when the children were younger, helps her come to the realization that she might want more from life.  In the last third of the book an interesting plot begins to take shape and changes Karen’s repetitive lifestyle for the better.  While the ending is somewhat unsurprising, lessons are learned and the author’s purpose is clear that a marriage or a relationship for that matter is a two way street and thrives on listening to one another, caring, understand, and compromise.  Though Kietzman’s book is overly detailed at times, the general theme and message of the book is essential for anyone looking to forge a long lasting relationship.  Though most people have heard what it takes to make a marriage work, it is valuable to have the opportunity to take a first hand look at the ups and downs of day to day matrimonial life and the consequences of a failed marriage.  Published just last month, A Changing Marriage full of themes like love at first sight, temptation, self-absorption, and the ever-present life question, “what if?” presents a thoroughly honest look at married life. 

An Interview with the author, Susan Kietzman:

1)    Where did you get the inspiration for A Changing Marriage and do you have personal experience with this type of married life?

The inspiration for this book came out of conversations with friends and acquaintances, especially those who were home with children. Some will think it’s autobiographical because I’ve been married for 28 years and have three children I stayed home to raise. The emotions Karen is feeling – of being unappreciated, of missing more intellectual pursuits, of envy that her spouse can live the same life with children as he lived before them – will ring true, I think, with many women. And Bob’s rise to power in the business world will resonate with men and women alike.

2)    Are Karen and Bob completely fictional characters or are they taken from people in your own life?

This is a question I get asked a lot. Because I am the author, people assume that I’ve drawn from my own experience to write the book. They next assume, therefore, that the book is either 1) about me, or 2) about people I know. And while I certainly do draw from my experience, I don’t write consciously about friends and family. My characters and storylines come from a number of sources in addition to my life experience: what I observe in others, what I read, what I see on television or at the movies or by simply going about my daily tasks, conversations, what I imagine might happen in one situation or another, etc. Fiction has to be viable and sound true to the reader or it doesn’t work.

3)    I found the ending to spark a possible new beginning between Bob and Karen, especially in the deli scene when Bob remembers back to the first time he saw Karen in their school's student center.

Would there be a possible sequel in the works? Do you think the two will try to rekindle their marriage despite their both already being married for a second time?

I don’t have a sequel to A Changing Marriage – or to my first novel, The Good Life – planned. But this doesn’t mean it won’t happen! It’s hard to say what Bob and Karen will do. I purposely left the ending of the book open, so the reader could decide for her/himself. Life can be messy and unpredictable, so it seems to me that believable fiction should be the same.

4)    If no sequel, could you tell me a little bit about your next project?

I have another two-book contract with Kensington, so I am now working on my third novel. It’s a family story that takes place at a shoreline cottage over the course of two summers thirty years apart. It’s scheduled for release spring/summer 2015.

5)    Which authors have you felt have been your mentors over the years?

I belong to a book group at my local library, and we read a wide variety of authors. When I was in college, most of the authors I admired were men. And now they are women: Elizabeth Strout, Barbara Kingsolver, Carol Shields, Ann Patchett – although I’ve read two books in the past year by Denis Johnson, whose stories are off-beat with hard-to-like but memorable characters.

6)    What are you reading now?

I’m finishing Johnson’s Angels and reading poetry by Norah Pollard, who lives locally. Next on the book group list is The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich.

7)    Finally, what advice would you give aspiring writers like me?

Take it seriously and write every day – if you make it a priority in your life, it will take you wherever you want to go.